The present invention relates to a manual recording paper insertion mechanism for an imaging apparatus. A recording paper is usually supplied such on imaging apparatus. A from a recording paper cassette detachably mounted to a paper supply unit, and other recording paper, different from that accommodated in the recording paper cassette, can be supplied without removing the recording paper cassette.
Some imaging apparatuses, such as copy machines, printers, facsimiles, and the like, form an image on a piece of plain paper cut to a predetermined size. This kind of the imaging apparatus generally has a recording paper cassette for accommodating plain (blank) papers as recording papers. The cassette is detachably mounted to a paper supply unit, and images are formed on recording paper sheets fed one by one from the recording paper cassette.
Since recording papers (sheets) have various sizes, the imaging apparatus can be mounted with a plurality of recording paper cassettes, each accommodating recording papers of different size, to cope with a plurality of recording paper sizes, which can be in particular indispensable to a copy machine.
In this connection, the imaging apparatus (to which a recording paper is supplied from the recording paper cassette as described above) is generally configured with a recording paper cassette for accommodating recording papers used more frequently (size or paper quality) mounted thereto. When an image is to be formed on a recording paper different from the frequently used recording paper, a recording paper cassette accommodating the different recording paper is positioned in the place of the frequently used recording paper cassette (in the case of an imaging apparatus to which a plurality of recording paper cassettes can be mounted, the above recording paper cassette is switched to a recording paper cassette to be used). In the meantime, there is rarely a case that an image must be formed on a recording paper which is not generally used, and to cope with such a case, the imaging apparatus is provided with a so-called manual insertion mechanism to enable a recording paper to be directly supplied to the apparatus without being accomodated in a recording paper cassette so that a time-consuming job of accommodating the recording paper in a recording paper cassette and mounting the cassette to the apparatus can be avoided.
However, a conventional manual insertion mechanism has a complex structure and requires an imaging apparatus of increased size because the mechanism has been arranged on the apparatus side. In addition it is time-consuming to manually insert a plurality of recording papers, because such a conventional mechanism is arranged to insert recording papers one by one.